Glazed Ceramics of the Golden Horde Solkhat: possibilities for historical interpretations

Abstract

The article presents the results of an analysis of ceramic material as a historical source. Due to the fact that pottery bears a significant share of information on chronology, determining the nature of craft production and the level of development of techniques and technology, external and internal economic, ethnic and cultural relations, ideological views, the main conclusions on these aspects of the development of the Golden Horde Solkhat are presented. The Solkhat pottery assemblage can act as a kind of chrono-indicator both for a number of urban objects and for complexes of other monuments where such pottery can be discovered. The chronological stages of production and use of Solkhat ceramic products are distinguished. In the second half of the XIII century the complexes contain imported Byzantine pottery, in imitation of which one of the craft complexes began making its own ware already at the beginning of the XIV century. In the XIV century the share of Byzantine pottery is decreases, which is probably connected with the weakening of Constantinople's position in international trade. It is replaced mainly by products of local centers, products of the southwestern Crimea, craft workshops of the Volga region and Iran, and Spanish ceramics. At the same time, celadon and a number of fragments of vessels with monograms are preserved, which specialists attribute to the production centers of Caffa, Sugdea or Chembalo and date back to the middle of the XIV century – 1475. In connection with the expansion of the city, old production centers (“Caravansеrai”) are liquidated and new ones (“Bokatash”) are created. With the transition of mass production to the territory of Bokatash II, the ware from these workshops also appear on other Golden Horde sites. The development of craft workshops allows us to trace a number of chronological stages in the production of glazed pottery in Solkhat and the territory of its surroundings.